Obesity

"Sin taxes" on cigarettes have turned out to be the most effective weapon in the campaign to reduce smoking. Why not try it on Flamin' Hot Cheetos, vanilla Coke and Twinkies? With increasing vigor, public health experts and think tanks are calling for extra taxes on foods and drinks that are heavy in calories and light on nutrition. New York Gov. David Paterson proposed an 18% soda tax last year as a budget-balancing measure, only to abandon it three months later in the face of stiff public opposition.

The Obama administration has suggested that savings from preventive health services will pay for much of the $1-trillion cost of health reform. Is that true? Not according to a comprehensive 2009 review article in the journal Health Affairs, which summed up its findings in its subtitle: "An Overwhelming Percentage of Preventive Interventions Add More to Medical Costs Than They Save." The key word is "interventions." Think about it: Having more people getting more health screenings, mammograms, pap smears and colonoscopies has to cost more money.

News flash: High-fructose corn syrup isn't to blame for the obesity epidemic. "High-fructose corn syrup was acquitted today amidst a flood of public apologies by consumers who had singled the corn sweetener out as a unique cause of obesity," newspaper ads declared in what was intended to look like a news story showing a man dressed like an ear of corn being proved innocent. The full-page ads, part of a $1-million marketing campaign launched Tuesday by a food-industry-backed advocacy group, ran in prominent newspapers nationwide, including this one. TV versions are running on all the cable news channels.

Childhood neglect and abuse can leave mental and physical scars, but a new study suggests there may also be a correlation between abuse and obesity. Researchers looked at court records of 410 children up to age 11 from 1967 to 1971 in a Midwest county who had court-substantiated cases of physical and sexual abuse and neglect. They were matched with 303 children of similar ages, sex, race and ethnicity and social class who had no abuse or neglect. On a follow-up of both groups about 30 years later, their body mass index scores were compared.

Obesity appears to be a risk factor on a par with pregnancy for developing complications from an infection with pandemic H1N1 influenza, according to the most comprehensive look yet at swine flu hospitalizations. About a quarter of hospitalizations for such complications have been in people who were morbidly obese, even though such people comprise less than 5% of the population. That fivefold increase in risk is nearly the same as the sixfold increase observed in pregnant women, according to the report in the Journal of the American Medical Assn.

A high-fat, high-sugar diet does more than pump calories into your body. It also alters the composition of bacteria in your intestines, making it easier to gain weight and harder to lose it, research in mice suggests. And the changeover can happen in as little as 24 hours, according to a report Wednesday in the new journal Science Translational Medicine. Many factors play a role in the propensity to gain weight, including genetics, physical activity and the environment, as well as food choices.

Gross obesity can take 10 years off your life, as much as heavy smoking, according to a study published Tuesday by the medical journal Lancet. An Oxford University team analyzed 57 studies conducted in the United States and Europe involving 894,576 people. The team correlated deaths to body mass index, or BMI, a commonly used measure of obesity that relates a person's weight and height. They found that people with a BMI over 30 -- which is considered moderately obese -- are likely to have their lives shortened by two to three years.

Re "Some healthful choices for an unhealthy place," Oct. 4 I applaud your article illuminating how the work of places such as St. John's Well Child and Family Center is transforming the health in our communities by placing prevention front and center. This is crucial, with the significant increase in obesity and chronic conditions whose treatment contributes so much to healthcare costs. But helping families cope with the shameful social conditions that put them at risk is not enough.

When Camryn Manheim decided to become what she calls "the fat girl who's not going to take it anymore," her career took off like a feather in a Santa Ana. Years of struggle to find a place in a Hollywood acting tyranny that practically required a "Baywatch" figure just to get in the door were shed virtually overnight. As one of the feisty lawyers on ABC's "The Practice," she recently earned an Emmy nomination as best supporting actress.